Distributed Teams and Revealed Trust

Abstract

This paper discusses a laboratory study of the influence of proximity, communication mode, and performance on the formation of trust between team members. The study manipulated team proximity and communication mode and measured (1) the performance of two-person teams in a distributed command and control task and (2) their subsequent expressions of trust as revealed in an economic game. Measures of team performance included the number of errors made and time on task. Revealed trust was scored at three levels: trust, distrust, and betrayal. We treat performance in the command and control task as a subject variable to determine whether it has an impact on the subsequent expression of trust. We found a weak main effect for communication mode on performance and no effect of performance on revealed trust. However, there was a highly significant main effect for proximity on trust. Members of dispersed teams are less likely to trust each other than members of teams who work in the same location. This finding runs counter to the current trend toward distributed work groups.